BBC Academy imagines The Apprentice: TV programme structure

Fictional or documentary, every episode tells a story – broken up into big building blocks – in the form of tasks, incidents, discoveries, etc.

At this early stage, these big blocks (or format points) should create the same structure for each episode, giving the audience a sense of familiarity. You'll create fresh interest with the details of each format point.

Things to notice in the example below:

Like a play, each episode is divided into 'acts'.

In every episode, the acts ask the same questions in the same order.

Once you're happy with the format, you can begin planning details – to the point of imagining the camera shots in each scene.